160 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



the Three Tuns (whither Caryll's chariot was to be 

 sent). I cannot pretend to express how pleased I 

 shall be to be at Lady Holt" Pope speaks of the 

 hearty and friendly reception that he met with in 

 this visit, which showed that he looked upon Lady 

 Holt as a sheltering home, sacred to the most holy 

 sorrow that he experienced in his life. 



This, however, was probably not the last visit that 

 Pope paid to a place 



(" Some safer world in depth of woods embraced") 

 whose surroundings doubtless inspired many of his 

 poems; for in Ap., 1734, just two years before 

 the good old Squire's death, he writes to him about 

 the house which he almost counted as his own 

 " Please to send me the draught of your staircase 

 whenever it is convenient to you. It would be a 

 great pleasure to me to contribute to the ornament 

 of Lady Holt;" and again in July 7, 1734, writing 

 from Cirencester, he says to his friend " I have a 

 great desire once more to pass some days at Lady 

 Holt, and settle your staircase plan." " In this 

 world," he adds, about this date, alluding to their 

 mutual afflictions " we live only upon the terms of 

 compassionating and lamenting one another by turns. 

 It must be a better place where all tears are wiped 

 away." Pope's last letter to his friend the Squire 

 is dated July 17, 1735. So far as this can we trace 

 the friendship of the two, as unbroken and close, 

 as that of Jonathan for David. 



In Feb. 17, 1735, the Squire and his wife Elizabeth 

 had been married fifty years, and a friend from 

 Racton writes " I give yourself and lady joy of your 

 Jubilee. I heartily wish the happy pair many more 

 pleasant years." * 



That eventful half century represented a happy 

 married life, full of useful and genial influences among 



* Caryll Correspondence, Vol. III., p. 75. Add 1 - 28,229. 



